2 laptop suggestions for college students

Millions of high schoolers will be graduating soon and will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) at the end of the summer. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer…probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students. Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch...

Portable Ubuntu lets you try out Ubuntu Linux

For a little over two years, I have been yammering on about Linux and Ubuntu. To get started using it, you need to either order a free Linux CD from the distribution of your choice or download a copy then learn how to burn a bootable CD from it. For many, this just isn’t going to happen. However, if you are extremely curious about Ubuntu and would try it if it was easier, Lifehacker just wrote an article about a new...

An unfortunate event – Linux losing to Micro...

Netbooks are the class of laptops that have screens measuring from 7″ to 10″, have no CD or DVD-ROM and use a specially designed low power processor. Initially, these small and inexpensive laptops were released with different versions of Linux on them and they ran fast and ran well. Microsoft saw a huge potential loss in their market share and quickly used their muscle to interject themselves and Windows XP into...

French police force save millions by using Ubuntu

This might be one of the largest government agencies making a whole sale change to Ubuntu and leaving Microsoft behind. Ubuntu Linux is a free open source operating system that can very capably replace a Microsoft Windows operating system. This article describes how France’s national police force will change all 90,000 of their computers to Ubuntu by 2015, and they have already saved more than $50 million dollars with...

Money management using Linux / Ubuntu

One of my customers desperately wants to hang on to an almost 10 year old computer. His Windows Me installation started showing its age almost three years ago, but he persevered. He mainly uses email, Internet, a word processor and Quicken to write checks and track his income and expenses for his small business. After much discussion, he decided that he wanted to try Ubuntu. His machine sports 256mb of RAM (hey that was a...

I want to be a Linux geek

Microsoft drove me into the world of Linux and its various flavors including Mint, Puppy, PC Linux OS, Dream, Damn Small, gOS and many more. This trek started two years ago (can you correlate that time frame?) and my veracity for learning it hasn’t ebbed one bit. In fact, I find the world of Linux more compelling every time I sit down and learn more about it. I’m writing this article from my Asus EeePC that runs a...

Free Pocket Guide to Ubuntu

  The author of Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference, Keir Thomas, made his book available for free in PDF format today (click here to download). If you tend to like your manuals and books in tangible book format, click here to get the $9.94, 166 page book version from Amazon.      ...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

This week’s email video brought to you by questions from Papa, Amy, Diana, Dan, Firat, Paul, John, Tina, Ernie, Sheila, Dave, Lisa, Bob, Shirley, and Iris. Their questions ranged from wanting to start a fan club to moving to Ubuntu and from nasty virus infections to how to install a DVD and much more! ...

How to Add or Remove a program in Ubuntu – V...

By now, you know that I have become smitten with Ubuntu (a Linux operating system). And in the right situation, I think it serves its users admirably. As packed as a new installation of Ubuntu is with productivity, graphics, Internet, and game software, you might want to add a new program. You cannot go to the store and purchased a new program and install it on an Ubuntu machine. Instead, you use the web and built-in tools...

Windows 7 – First Impressions

I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any...

Don’t buy a new computer yet

2009 is upon us and computer prices are incredibly low, but if you can wait a year to buy a new computer, I would highly recommend it. Why? Microsoft plans on releasing the next version of Windows either late in 2009 or early in 2010. All indications point to the earlier release since Microsoft is anxious to bury Vista. Last week, Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP for a fifth time! This indicates the continued...

Thwarted by online poker

Today marked my second Linux/Ubuntu casualty in almost 2 dozen attempts. As I’ve learned more about Ubuntu the past couple of years, I carefully selected clients who would have little problems dealing with a non-Microsoft operating system. You may have read my take on Ubuntu usage for the average computer user before, but here it is again to setup the rest of the story: I believe that any computer users who uses only...

Acer Aspire One Netbook

Today, I had my first opportunity to get some hands-on time with Acer’s entry into the netbook craze, the Acer Aspire One. The young lady I helped bought a blue Aspire One on Black Friday for just over $300. Sporting a 120GB hard drive, an extremely nice 8.9″ screen, 1 GB of RAM, and Windows XP, this little unit was very impressive to look at and use. After some discussion with me, she decided that she...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Some wide ranging questions this week about strange AVG and keyboard problems, Ubuntu, transferring files to a new computer, a Kim Komando mention??, AOL high speed, and much more. Brought to you by questions from Joan, Janet, Jon, Karen, James, Charley, Mike, Joe, Geri, Don, Papa C, Howard and Anne. ...

Customizing the Ubuntu Login screen – Video ...

I personally don’t mind the orange and black themes of Ubuntu. If you do, however, you can quickly change the look of the Ubuntu login them by downloading new ones from the Internet or using some of the extra options in Ubuntu. To download new themes, I suggest starting at Gnome Look. Gnome Look offers hundreds of new themes you can use at no cost to customize Ubuntu to look the way you want it. Once at the Gnome Look...